The cloning feature is a task provided for all types of projects (whether published or not) and for users with Project creator and Researcher roles only; specifically, it is possible that:
  • the Project creator can clone at any time its own project,
  • a Researcher user can clone a published project.

To start the cloning of a project you need to click on the Actions menu in the Dashboard or in the Project details view as shown in the images below:

After click, the system shows a form like to the project creation's one which reports on the right the data cloned project and requires on the left a confirmation and/or data entry of the new project that you are creating; in particular:

  • Title: mandatory field that identifies the name to assign to the new project
  • Version: mandatory field that identifies the version to assign to the new project
  • Programming Language: text field filled in (not editable) with the same value of the cloned project
  • Creator: pre-filled text field (not editable) with the name of the user logged that is creating the new project
  • Category: mandatory multi-value field that requires the confirmation and/or data entry of more categories of membership for the new project
  • Abstract: pre-filled mandatory text field containing the data cloned project that you can edit

If data is not correctly inserted, the system shows a specific validation error for each field; in particular for the Title field:

  • the string must begin with at least one letter, from a to z, in uppercase or lowercase
  • the string must have at least 2 characters
  • the string must not have more than 40 characters
  • it is not allowed to enter:
    • whitespaces
    • special characters such as !@#$%^&*()+={}[]|\:;"'<,>.?/~`
    • _ and - as last character
  • it is allowed to enter:
    • numeric characters
    • _ and - (but not as a last character)

for the Version field:

  • the string must begin with at least one alphanumeric character, in uppercase or lowercase
  • the string must have at least 2 characters
  • the string must not have more than 20 characters
  • it is not allowed to enter:
    • whitespaces
    • special characters !@#$%^&*()+={}[]|\:;"'<,>?/~`
    • _ - . consecutive and/or as last character
  • it is allowed to enter:
    • numeric characters
    • _ - . (but not consecutive and/or as last character)

for the Abstract field:

  • the string must begin with alphanumeric character, in uppercase or lowercase
  • it is not allowed to enter as first character:
    • whitespace
    • special characters: !@#$%^&*()_+={}[]|\:;"'<,>.?/~`

for the Keyword field:

  • the string must begin with alphanumeric character, in uppercase or lowercase
  • it is not allowed to enter as first character:
    • whitespace
    • special characters: !@#$%^&*()_+={}[]|\:;"'<,>.?/~`
then correct the data entered and when they are ok, click on Confirm.

After click, another error message can be shown if another project already exists with the same attributes relating to Title and Version; in this case it is sufficient to enter different values than what is already present and then click on Confirm. 

At the end of the procedure the system generates:

  • a new project (record), visible to the user within the project dashboard
  • a project on Gitlab environment based on the type of programming language and its version chosen
  • the provision of an Integrated Development Environment with its resources
  • an update of the Provenance graph for both projects involved
  • an email notification to Project Creator and Administrator to inform them of the event.